I do not own Dungeons and Dragons or any of the characters.
Marsh
"The words you hear, the words I speak," the Lizardfolk, Sleyvas, said, "they are not the same. There are serpents in the marsh, the Sket'kah, that when you squeeze from them their venom, weave it into your magicks, all you speak is understood by all who hear you. It is a half-magic, but of great use, so I have placed it upon you. The cries of the monsters of the marsh, the words of my people, all will have sense to your ears."
"Clever," Jasper said, his rapier blade still leveled at Sleyvas's throat, just above the curled lizard crest on Sleyvas's rope and bone necklace. "You're the only one not attacking us. Since we left that ruin, we've fought two dozen of your kind, and an army of undead. Why should we believe that you, alone, are willing to pursue peace?"
"Because Sleyvas is alone," Sleyvas said. "A tribe of one. The others, those who attacked you, once they were my tribe, but no longer. Now they worship the Onyx Tower. Is that also your god? Is that why you have come?"
"We do not worship this Onyx Tower," Xenk said.
"Or have any idea what Onyx Tower you're even talking about," Edgin added.
"It is a great, black tower," Sleyvas explained, "whose surface glitters like oil upon the water. It arrives in our homeland, quick, sudden, and stabs into the heart of the marsh like a poisoned spear. All the tribes have raised their spears to it, their hissing has become low and weak, that of slaves. The Tower has devoured the hearts of my people...all except Sleyvas."
"Hold on," Adrianna frowned. "You're saying it just suddenly appeared in the swamp? How?"
"I do not know," Sleyvas shook his head. "Darkness falls, then rises. Leaves the Tower behind, like a weapon dropped on the field of battle. Tower smells of firepits and cities, things not of the marsh. Not even the moonlight will touch it, for the Tower drinks its light. It is a black kiss, a serpent's bite on the land."
"What's inside?" Doric asked.
"Within the Tower is a spider of doors, bones, death. The spider wears the snakeskin of a female, a hu-man. She has great power, terrible anger...yet she is bones and hate only, with no blood body. She rose from the marsh after dying beneath its waters."
"What does she want with your people?" Simon asked.
"She gives them weapons of metal, so they may take cities for her," Sleyvas answered. "Now my people slay trees, build great wooden machines that throw spears and rock, make mud roads to onyx door in marsh, the one you walked through when you came here. She leads them to war, one they cannot win. She will make the sky rain with the blood of my people, turn the tribes into a feast for vultures."
"Why is it that you don't serve the tower?" Xenk asked.
"Sleyvas speaks to the water, the mist," Sleyvas explained. "Sleyvas serve the marsh. Tower is a thing of your weak-blooded people, hu-mans, cities. It smells of fire and hate, it does not belong in our lands. Sleyvas would never raise his spear to such a thing. Yet this has claimed my people! My people, who need nothing of your cities! This marsh is big enough for many tribes of my people, yet the spider within the Tower wants to drive them into hu-man cities to spill hu-man blood. She promises gold, steel, food...but doing this will only kill my people. The dead have no use for such things."
"Why do you call her a spider of doors?" Kromlech asked.
"The gates," Jasper answered, lowering his sword but keeping it ready. "She spreads doorways to lands far beyond this land like a spider weaving a web."
"Yes!" Sleyvas nodded. "Yes."
Jasper narrowed his eyes slightly, then sheathed his sword. "We're going to the Tower. We mean to stop this woman. You're going to tell us how."
"If you will strike the spider within the Tower, then I will give you help any way that I can," Sleyvas offered. "Supplies...guidance...these things I may help you with."
"We need no supplies from you," Jasper said. "We only need to know which way to go."
"If you wish to reach the Tower, you must first go through the tribes of my people. Sleyvas shall ungrow the walls of vines in your path, clear the way for you. Continue along the snaking trail of mud to the drowned town of hu-mans, now the great gathering place of the tribes of the marsh. Beyond the drowned city is the Tower."
"If we go that way, we will have to kill your people," Xenk warned him. "That is okay with you?"
"Not Sleyvas's people," Sleyvas shook his head. "They serve the Onyx Tower now."
"But they were your people before," Jasper said. "And could be again, once the woman is dead."
Sleyvas considered. "The tribes are cramped within the innards of the hu-man town. To scatter them, you will have to break the spine of the tribes. Find our king, Sess'sth, very strong, very angry, but stupid, like big tree. He lives in great stone fort in hu-man town, find him there, kill him."
"You want us to kill your king?" Mia asked, eyes narrowed. "So it's a coup?"
"Sess'sth's death will make the tribes scatter like quarrelsome snakes," Sleyvas explained. "Follow the drums. They will lead you to my people."
"Very well," Xenk nodded. "If that is what we must do, and if that will spare the most people, then we shall do it."
"Hold on," Holga frowned. "Why can't Jasper and Doric just fly us there?"
"Because even together, we can't fly everyone," Jasper said. "Even with Shadow carrying two. We just have too many people."
Holga sighed, nodding. "Then I guess we have no choice."
They all nodded, and they turned, heading back to the wall of vines where Sleyvas had opened a path for them. Per Sleyvas's instructions, they followed the path before them as it wound and wove through the marsh. However, the Lizardfolk were less than cooperative with Jasper and the others' attempts to reach the Onyx Tower. Despite their best efforts to avoid unnecessary death, for a change, it seemed as though every Lizardfolk in the Marsh had found them, fighting them back hard and forcing them to kill them. Ranged fighters among the Lizardfolk hurled spears, cast spells, or hurled fire bombs, warriors charged with scimitars or axes, some of the axes being sharpened stone tied to a stick. However, no matter what charged them, Jasper and the others slaughtered them. Lizardfolk were physically stronger, but their warriors were slower than Drow warriors, and their magic-wielders were less skilled, leading to weaker spells assaulting them. In contrast, Adrianna and Simon's magic killed scores of Lizardfolk, Jasper's rapier and Flame Arrows felled almost as many combined as Adrianna and Simon did together, Mia slaughtered as many as Jasper did using only her mythril-adamantite longsword, Edgin proved himself to be a better fighter than most of the Lizardfolk warriors in close combat, provided he was fighting two or less, Holga and Kromlech each killed scores of Lizardfolk with their axes, Vahn was picking off the Lizardfolk throwing firebombs rapidly, sometimes hitting the firebomb with a flaming arrow to set it off and take out a group, Doric was making good use of both her Wild Shape magic and her dagger, and Aranea was laying waste to anything that came into range with her spear. Even Kira was killing some of the Lizardfolk, using her pendant to sneak up on some of the magic-users that the other ranged fighters couldn't target, though she only killed a handful.
Finally, they'd reached the sunken city, taking a wooden bridge up to the rooftops of the city. Once again, they were swarmed instantly, and unlike following the trail through the swamp, here they had to fight their way across a maze of rooftop and rickety bridges. They could see the fortress they were heading for in the distance, but there was no clear path to it. More than once, they reached a dead end and had to double back, and for every building they crossed, they were forced to fight a dozen Lizardfolk.
Exhaustion began to take its toll quickly. Vahn's supply of arrows began to run low, and Simon and Adrianna's staffs began to run low on power, Jasper no longer had enough magic energy to fire off Flame Arrows. Even Xenk's movements began to slow. Finally, they all stopped as they finished clearing a large, open rooftop of an exceptionally large group of Lizardfolk. They all found a place to sit among the crumbling ruins to rest. They all watched for threats, but no Lizardfolk moved to attack them for an hour. The hour did very little to restore their strength, but it helped. Some of the magic in Simon and Adrianna's staves regenerated, and all of them managed to regain a bit of energy, though they had to stretch their sore muscles in order to relieve the stiffness. Then, they headed into the fortress and were right back to it.
During their hour of rest, it seemed the Lizardfolk had been preparing for their inevitable assault. Dozens of ranged fighters greeted them atop the maze of paths across the top of the wall, only to die in a barrage of Quicksilver arrows, Flame Arrows, and Lightning Balls, which drifted down the hallway and electrocuted anything in range, rapidly slaughtering the Lizardfolk as Simon held a Shield Spell to protect them from the returning fire. After several minutes, the hallway was clear, but Vahn had run out of arrows. He drew his sword instead, picking up a worn, steel shield from a long-dead human corpse lying forgotten in a corner, and strode forward with the others. They fought their way across the top of the walls, slaughtering the Lizardfolk waiting for them. Slowly, they made their way across the walls, the Lizardfolk fighting them every step of the way, only to fall before them. Finally, they reached the entrance into the main fortress, where the Lizardfolk's king would be waiting. Jasper glanced back at what lay behind them.
Even for all their numbers, and for all their brute strength, the Lizardfolk paled in comparison to the Drow. If it had been Drow, they'd have been slaughtered. But the Lizardfolk were too straight-forward for their own good. In combat, even their magic-wielders know only how to attack, and only in an all-out assault. It was exhausting to withstand, but it was easy to predict and to counter. Despite their numbers, fighting them was simply easier than the Drow. And if Jasper was judging it correctly, their king would be no different.
"I'll fight the king alone," Jasper said. "If he tries to call reinforcements, handle them, but Sess'sth is mine."
The others all nodded, and Jasper shifted back to his true form, feeling the fatigue and muscle aches that had been plaguing him fade slightly. He hadn't recovered fully, but it was enough for him to fight unhindered. However, contrary to their expectation, the king was not the only one waiting for them. In fact, what they found, instead, was a well-guarded hallway leading to a large room where two Umber Hulks waited. Jasper swore harshly as they stepped into the room, leaving the Lizardfolk in the hallway lying in bloody pools. He expanded into a Girallon instantly, pouncing on one Umber Hulk from the side as Shadow charged the other as a Triceratops, spearing it on his horns and smashing it to the wall before becoming a massive serpent and coiling around it to bind it, slowly managing to constrict and crush it. As he did, the other Umber Hulk wrestled with Jasper, managing to carve several gashes into his chest and arms, but before it could do significant damage, the others arrived, striking its massive body over and over before Xenk finally managed to slash off its head. Jasper sat against the wall, growling in pain, and Xenk walked over, quickly healing his wounds before Jasper shrunk back down.
"I was not expecting a pair of Umber Hulks," Jasper admitted, just as Shadow's prey's body finally collapsed with a sickening series of crunches and a spray of thick blood.
Shadow returned to Jasper, though standing beside him as a wolf, and he sighed, pushing himself up and drawing his rapier. They headed deeper into the fortress together, Shadow bearing the brunt of the combat for them this time. As they slowly worked their way through the fortress, they were assaulted by Lizardfolk near-constantly, and a handful of Kobold, including magic-wielders, but with Shadow heading their charge, nothing stood even a ghost of a chance. Shadow crushed targets as an Ephemeral Hangman, gored them as a list of clawed creatures, slaughtered them as a Grey Render. But eventually, with the cramped hallways restricting the targets' movements, he simply walked ahead of them as a Manticore, anything that came into view dying in a hail of shadowy tail spines. Then, finally, they'd found Sess'sth. He was much larger than the rest of the Lizardfolk they'd been facing,and wore a bone necklace with a wooden carving of a human face as a charm. He had a small, decorative skull on the front of his loincloth, a round, silver shield decorated with a silhouette of a lizard's head, possibly his own, and a massive mace formed of several pieces of wood bound together around a normal club's head, all of them with enormous spikes sticking out of it, and a human skull decorating the end.
"You trespass!" Sess'sth accused. "This is the land of my people! Sess'sth rules here!"
"No, you don't," Jasper said. "The dead can rule nothing."
Sess'sth hissed angrily. "I will put a spear through your heart and drink blood from your skull! Your bones I shall give to the Tower!"
"We'll see," Jasper said as Shadow shrunk down into a wolf and walked over to sit beside Mia.
Jasper walked forward calmly, Sess'sth's legs tensing to strike.
"Can he really win alone?" Adrianna asked.
"He's fought worse than this," Edgin said calmly.
"Yeah, that Blackguard was much worse," Simon agreed.
"Aranea was much harder to kill than this guy, too," Mia added.
"Jasper's going to be just fine," Aranea nodded.
"Be careful not to make a wrong move, Sess'sth," Jasper warned him. "If you do, I'll kill you in a single strike."
Sess'sth hissed angrily and lunged, leaping forward with a powerful downward blow, and the fight was decided. Jasper spun to his left, stepping outside of the blow, then flipped sideways over Sess'sth before he could lash out to the side. Then, as he was rolling horizontal to the ground, he drove his rapier through the back of Sess'sth's head. The strike pierced through his cerebellum and severed his spinal cord, killing him instantly. Sess'sth's knees crashed to the ground and Jasper reached over, withdrawing his sword before nudging Sess'sth in the back, sending him crashing to the ground. Then, Jasper groaned, stumbling to the side and leaning heavily against the wall.
"You focused too hard again, didn't you?" Mia asked.
"It's not as bad as against the Pride Sinspawn, but yeah," Jasper sighed, sitting against the wall. "Let's take a break here."
The others all nodded, finding a place to sit around the room. Mia seated herself in Jasper's lap, and Aranea and Adrianna sat to either side of them. Shadow returned to Jasper, and after a while, they'd agreed on a rotation of who would keep watch while the others slept, as they decided they'd have at least a few hours before the Lizardfolk decided to try and challenge them again.
Jasper hated undead. They'd passed through an area called the Rotting Bog, a section of the Marsh of Chelimber where the Onyx Tower had absorbed all life from the world around it, spreading corruption. All of the rotten corpses of long-dead humans in the bog had been reanimated as a special kind of zombie that, when killed, released a cloud of poisonous gasses, leaving killing them from a distance or else fleeing as soon as they fell as the only way to battle them. And once they'd passed them, they'd met an entire colony of Bulette. Thanks to Shadow, they'd been able to survive the first surprise assault with no greater an injury than Adrianna being slashed across the side. However, after killing nearly fifty of them, including one that was more than five times the size of the rest, they were bruised, bloodied, and exhausted all over again. And probably the most patronizing part was that despite having restocked on Vahn's arrows, with some help from Sleyvas who had directed them to an armory where they could find all kinds of abandoned human weapons, which were all useless besides the arrows, they were useless against the Bulette, so he still had plenty of them.
"Is it too late to tell the Harpers to go fuck themselves?" Edgin asked, sitting heavily against the Sinking Temple, a structure in which their access to the Onyx Temple resided.
"I'm sure we could make it back to the gate to the Sunset Mountains," Jasper said, back in his elven form but with long hair similar to his true form's. "Then hike the twenty miles back to the gate to Baldur's Gate. And then walk another five miles back to the actual Baldur's Gate. And we'll probably have a bounty put on our heads once whoever rules the Onyx Tower finishes destroying Baldur's Gate."
Everyone but Xenk groaned.
"So much walking," Doric said.
"I hate the fact that it's probably easier just to finish the mission," Simon complained.
"I just want to sleep," Mia complained.
"Same," Vahn nodded.
"And just think, besides having to pass through the Water Stair, which is, in fact, the Plane of Water, we get to fight our way to it through hordes of Minotaurs," Aranea said sarcastically.
Sleyvas had met them at the fortress to warn them that the Sinking Temple was currently being inhabited by "huge half-human with horns like livestock." Translation, Minotaurs. Lots of them.
"And then gods know what we'll find inside the Onyx Tower itself," Adrianna said.
"At least one very powerful, undead, female warrior with a grudge against Baldur's Gate," Jasper said. "Christ, she better not have been reanimated as a Blackguard."
"Don't jinx us," Holga warned him.
"That would fit our luck," Edgin said dryly.
"Whatever it is, we will conquer it," Xenk said.
"Says mister perfect," Jasper countered. "Why don't we just send Xenk to do the rest of it for us?"
Everyone agreed jokingly, and Xenk smirked, shaking his head. Finally, they all heaved themselves up, heading into the Sinking Temple. And promptly began a very long process of very carefully fighting the hordes of Minotaurs inside. Thankfully, despite being very large and very powerful, they were also very stupid, and could easily be goaded into ramming into a wall and stunning themselves, making them easy targets. Shadow had an easy time of it by simply walking along a wall and waiting for a Minotaur to charge through him before killing it in his Grey Render form. The others mostly allowed Mia and Jasper, in their Tabaxi forms, Aranea, and Xenk to handle being Minotaur bait, as they were the quickest, and were also able to then kill the Minotaurs fairly efficiently afterward, with the others helping out when either there was a large group, or the Minotaur ended up charging into a wall too far away to kill quickly.
By fighting this way, expending minimal energy and having only a select few, mostly Shadow, fight for the majority of it, they were actually able to rest a bit as they traveled through the temple, and it turned out to not be as bad as they were dreading. Then, finally, they reached the Water Stair, a huge pit with a sloped walkway spiraling down into it and water eternally spraying up from it. Sleyvas walked over as they were staring at it.
"You are strong," Sleyvas commended. "This is the Water Stair, the entrance to the world of water. Human shamans call world of water Element Plane, Plane of Water."
"How exactly does entering the Plane of Water get us into the tower?" Jasper asked.
"There is a gate to the Element Plane of Water in the Tower," Sleyvas said. "There is a gate to the Element Plane of Water here. You go in through this gate, come out through the other."
"Okay," Jasper nodded. "Follow up question, how exactly do we get to that gate if we can't breathe?"
"Sleyvas has magic," Sleyvas answered, "a magic that let you breathe like fish for short time, let you breathe water like air. Last long enough for you to enter Tower, not to get back out. You must destroy Tower from inside, then find your own way out."
"Why does it sound like we're in your way and you just want us gone, too?" Holga asked.
"Trust Sleyvas," Sleyvas said. "Sleyvas has helped you so far, yes?"
"Great," Kromlech said. "Sounds impossible. Better get to it."
"Yeah, that sounds like most of the plans Edgin comes up with, too," Doric said.
"Didn't one of those get Holga killed?" Jasper reminded them.
"It's fine," Edgin said. "Everyone smart enough to coordinate an attack on three separate places would have more exits than just the Plane of Water, right? No one's that stupid. We'll be fine."
"Famous last words," Mia snorted. "Alright. Let's do this."
Sleyvas nodded, quickly casting his spell, and promised them that his magic would guide them through the Plane of Water. Then, with that not-so-reassuring promise, they all jumped into the gate.
Leave a review.